


sunset memories

by lutzaussi



Category: Bleach
Genre: Beach Holidays, F/F, Festivals, Fluff, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-20
Updated: 2016-12-20
Packaged: 2018-09-09 23:02:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8916517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lutzaussi/pseuds/lutzaussi
Summary: Vacations are meant for relaxing, but Soifon is not sure if she could ever really relax and have fun. Of course, Yoruichi takes it upon herself to prove her wrong.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mylittleuboa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mylittleuboa/gifts).



A vacation for the Captains of the Gotei 13 rarely happened, but the eleventh year after Yhwach’s defeat, half a year after the Seireitei was returned to a glory to eclipse that which it held before, they were given one.

And Soifon had no idea what to make of it. She considered refusing, as Captain Hitsugaya and Captain Kuchiki--Byakuya--had, but she also didn’t want to have to deal with only the two of them and the mess they would make of the Seireitei. Rukia and Renji had immediately left at the announcement, heading for the human realm, and as far as Soifon knew Isane was already at a hot springs with her sister, who had yelled loud enough to be heard throughout the Seireitei that Hanatarou was more than capable of controlling the Fourth Division for a few weeks.

She couldn’t be sure, but she was also pretty sure that Rose and Shinji had kidnapped Kensei and were taking him down to the human realm with them to, as Rose had commented, get drunk and play videogames for a week straight.

Wherever Soifon’s thoughts would’ve went after that was a mystery to her, because she walked into the Captain Commander.

“Sorry, sir!” she almost shouted, tripping and falling over.

Shunsui laughed, grabbed one of her arms and hefted her back onto her feet. He kept a hold on her arm until she was steady, inquired, “You are not one to be lost in thought, Soifon. Anything on your mind? Thinking about your vacation?”

He definitely understood from the frown that tugged at her face when he said that, and he laughed again, said, “Don’t worry about us here--” he had said he was staying, but Soifon knew he wouldn’t get any work done--”you should go to the human realm and forget about your duties for a while.”

She nodded, waited until he was on his way before she flash-stepped back to the second division headquarters. Ōmaeda was working and she bypassed him entirely, already having given him instructions on how to run the division while she was away. When she had told him she hadn’t known where she would be going and she still didn’t know.

Soifon slammed the door to her room shut behind her, slammed the back of her head against it. Then she heard a sound from her bed.

Yoruichi was sitting on her bed in a tanktop and shorts, reading gag manga and drinking soda. Soifon slammed her head against the door again, just in case it was a dream. It wasn’t. Yoruichi looked up from the manga at the noise, with a confused expression that turned to happiness when she saw that it was Soifon.

“You have a vacation!” she all but shrieked, leaving the book and the foam cup on the bed, throwing herself across the room. She ended up wrapping her arms around Soifon’s legs, and the recoil of being grabbed made Soifon’s head slam into the door again.

“Y-yes,” Soifon said, patting her head gingerly to make sure she wasn’t bleeding.

Yoruichi was staring up at her, an almost predatory grin growing across her face, “Kisuke has a beach house that I stole the keys to.”

Soifon stared at her for a few moments, until Yoruichi growled impatiently and poked her in the side, said, “C’mon, I have a gigai for you, we’re going to go relax.”

Two hours later they were in the human realm on a train leaving Karakura. Soifon was in her gigai, black cat backpack slung over her shoulders and a duffle bag that Yoruichi had packed in her lap. Yoruichi had an entire wardrobe full of clothes for Soifon at Kisuke’s shop, which perplexed her, but she wasn’t complaining about not having to go get clothes or pack. Where the other woman had gotten the train tickets from was also a mystery, but then again, Soifon suspected that she had been planning this for ages.

They rode for a couple hours, during which Yoruichi napped and Soifon stared with amazement out of the window at the passing cities and scenery, then got off at a small station in a seaside town.

Yoruichi stretched and took the duffle back from Soifon as they left the train, slung it over one of her shoulders and grabbed Soifon’s hand.

They picked up a few bags of groceries at the 24 hour store, walked out of the main part of the town to where scattered cottages in pastel lined the beaches. They stopped at a cotton candy pink one that had so many windows they could see the setting sun through the house. Yoruichi tugged a keychain out of her pants pocket, let them in.

It was a little dusty and small, but open and clean in a way that Soifon appreciated. She put the groceries away while Yoruichi opened the windows and hung their clothes in the closet of the bedroom. 

Yoruichi didn’t let Soifon start anything for dinner, threw her sandals at her and when they both had jackets on she dragged her back into the town to a ramen stand. They drank beer and ate shio ramen at the counter, and after Soifon insisted that they get some fireworks--she had never been to the beach for a vacation, but she knew that there are always fireworks. Yoruichi laughed, pressed a kiss to her nose, and bought them sparklers from the store.

They didn’t light the sparklers, saved them for another night. Yoruichi dug a large umbrella painted to look like ice cream out of the front closet of the cottage and had Soifon come with her down to the beach to find a good spot to put it.

Yoruichi’s main goal--relaxing--came after that. They sat on the back porch of the cottage and talked, Yoruichi painting Soifon’s toenails a pale purple while the other woman braided her hair and drank juice. They didn’t get to do this often, Soifon mused to herself as she ran a hand through Yoruichi’s silky hair during a break in the conversation. Usually it was just an afternoon or evening every couple weeks, whenever Soifon was in the human realm to kill Menos or check up on Kurosaki. Never for a full day, never for two full weeks. She couldn’t help but blush at that thought.

Yoruichi looked up and smirked, “You look like you’ve been thinking hard.”

Soifon blushed harder, avoided the other’s eyes in favor of inspecting her toes, “Doesn’t matter.”

Yoruichi grumbled, wrapped her arms around Soifon’s middle and complained, “Yes it does!”

“I just,” Soifon paused, let Yoruichi drink some of her juice before downing the last of it, “I don’t think we’ve spent this much time together in decades.”

Over a century, really, and she knew that was what Yoruichi was thinking as well, before she got that deviously sparkly look on her face and chirped, “Well, I guess we might need a little while to get reacquainted, then?”

Soifon did not complain as she was dragged inside and into the bedroom, and in fact she was the one to kick the door shut behind them.

The next day Yoruichi, though complaining about water and sand, didn’t stop Soifon from dragging her outside into the early morning and down to the beach. They had it to themselves that early, and for some reason Yoruichi had brought a watermelon and a bat, for some reason, but Soifon had only grabbed the basics--their towels, extra hairbands, her phone (just in case) and bottled water.

It was clear and warm and the blue sky extended forever. After throwing the towels out under the umbrella that Yoruichi had planted the evening before, Soifon left her and the watermelon, tugged her sandals off and ran down to the water. Maybe it was childish of her, but there were no beaches in Soul Society and she had never seen that much water, unending and the perfect dark shade of blue.

She stepped into the tide, let the water cover her feet up to her ankles. After a few minutes of just standing there and ignoring whatever Yoruichi was saying, Soifon tugged the sleeveless sweatshirt she was wearing over her bathing suit off and threw it above the tide line, dove into the water.

Time felt insignificant while she was in the water, but eventually she was thirsty and a little tired. The sun was high by that point, and Yoruichi was half-under the umbrella, the book she brought with her laying on her stomach as she snored. Yoruichi grabbed her sweatshirt and dropped it on her bag, cracked one of the bottles of water to take a drink before a devious thought crossed her mind. She leaned over Yoruichi’s towel, squeezed her hair out over her face, and laughed when the other woman sputtered awake and grabbed her legs, knocking her down to the sand and towels.

Soifon didn’t stop laughing even as Yoruichi began kissing her, didn’t complain at the sand sticking to her back when they rolled into the sun.

Eventually they got around to breaking the watermelon (Yoruichi gave the finishing blow, with her hand) and Soifon convinced Yoruichi to get in the water. They made curry for dinner and ate sitting on the porch, legs touching as they watched some surfers further along the beach.

The next night they used the sparklers after the sun had set. She’d spent the day swimming and sunning herself next to Yoruichi, and after another day on the beach, Soifon was beginning to tan around her swimsuit. She felt that it suited her just fine. After spending two weeks on the beach, a tan would be a little like a victory medal to show off.

They went out to the town’s only sushi place that evening, and after they stopped by the store to pick up more juice they went down to the beach and lit sparklers.

Soifon had used fireworks before then, had seen some pretty magnificent ones, but there was something about holding a sparkler in her hand and waving it around to form pictures and words, about seeing the delight on Yoruichi’s face that mirrored her own. They worked through the entire package of sparklers, and when they were done they laid on the beach and watched the stars. Just as Soifon thought that Yoruichi had fallen asleep, the other woman said with a sigh, “I wish we could stay here forever.”

The third day they didn’t go to the beach for the day--though Soifon still went for a swim in the morning--but stayed in the cottage and lazed around. Yoruichi taught Soifon how to play a racing video game, which was amusing for her but not for Soifon. Then they napped and tickled each other and read gag manga until Yoruichi checked a clock and yelped.

“The festival!” she yelled, abandoning Soifon on the couch to run into the bedroom.

“Festival?” Soifon sat up. She draped her arms over the back of the couch and watched as Yoruichi ran back out, looking confused, then dug into the front closet and pulled out two paper bags.

“Hachigatsu Bon,” Yoruichi said as she picked Soifon up from the couch and carried her into the bedroom, “and I got us yukata for it!”

Soifon let Yoruichi put her yukata on, soft cotton dyed indigo and gold with pasques embroidered upon it. She helped the other woman into her own yukata, a deep purpley blue with green grass dyed into it. As Yoruichi sat on the bed and waited for Yoruichi to stop digging around in the closet again, she fingered the fine cotton and found herself smiling.

They made it just in time to see the tail end of the dance, which was very chaotic. The festival was loud for such a small town (well, all towns looked small compared to the Seireitei and Rukongai), and there were stands with every type of food imaginable and every game imaginable. Soifon won Yoruichi two goldfish, while Yoruichi won her a plush cat with a bow around its neck in return.

They ate yakisoba and shioyake, drank juice from a stand selling all flavors and sizes. Yoruichi bought them cotton candy for later, hung the bags from the back of Soifon’s obi and refused to take them off, cackling all the while.

Soifon pouted until Yoruichi ran off muttering about cats and kakigori, sounding nervous. While the other was away, Soifon bought them both milk tea, and headed to an empty bench.

Yoruichi appeared after a few minutes with kakigori in both of her hands and another plush cat under one arm. She handed first the melon kakigori, then the cat to Soifon before sitting beside her. Soifon tugged Yoruichi’s purple-blue yukata so the woman faced her, then pressed a kiss to the corner of her lips. A large grin spread over Yoruichi’s face as Soifon’s reddened, and she ducked her head to eat.

When they were walking home, stuffed cats, goldfish and cotton candy in hand, fireworks crackled and boomed over their heads. Soifon wound an arm through one of Yoruichi’s, and thought that maybe two weeks was a little too short of a time to restrict such fun to, and that she might call Shunsui in the morning to tell him that.


End file.
